Open letter to support New Eastern Europe

This year New Eastern Europe did not receive funding from the Polish Ministry of Culture for publishing the magazine. Therefore, we asked all of our readers and supporters to sign our open letter of support addressed to the Minister of Culture and Vice Prime Minister, Piotr Gliński, calling on him to appeal this decision.  

list w języku polskim: http://bitly.com/NEElist

————————————–

Piotr Gliński

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Culture and National Heritage

Dear Mr Deputy Prime Minister,

As a community of authors, readers and supporters of the bimonthly magazine New Eastern Europe we ask that you positively consider the magazine’s appeal from the decision of not granting financial support. The application form (number 70027/15/A1) was filed as part of the 2016-2019 grant programme: “Promotion of literature and readership – magazine”.

New Eastern Europe is recognized as an extremely important periodical on the Polish publishing market which deals with the issues relating to Central and Eastern Europe. The main goal of the magazine is to facilitate a dialogue (which includes, to a large extent, cultural dialogue) with Poland’s eastern and western neighbours.

The magazine publishes texts written by distinguished Polish and international experts who specialise in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. It also implements a distinct public mission by propagating the democratisation processes in countries that are east of Poland; supporting the Europeanisation of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, as well as the independence and democratisation of Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan. For these reasons the magazine has been recognised in Poland and abroad as an instrument of building ties and facilitating dialogue between neighbours. What is more, New Eastern Europe is also the only Polish journal dedicated to Eastern Europe that has such a wide global reach, with readers and subscribers in nearly 50 countries around the world and a growth rate of 67% of readership year-over-year.

Nevertheless, New Eastern Europe is a magazine with a public mission and not a commercial undertaking. Therefore, without the grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage it will be impossible to continue the publication. We are convinced that the future of New Eastern Europe and its mission is not indifferent to you. That is why we call on you to make a positive decision in regards to this request.

Sincerely, 

Jerzy Bahr, Former Polish Ambassador to Russia, Kraków

Bogumiła Berdychowska, Warsaw

Ian Bond, Centre for European Reform, London

Sergey Davidis, Memoriał, Moscow

Leonidas Donskis, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas

Joerg Forbrig, German Marshall Fund, Berlin

Carl Henrik Fredriksson, Eurozine, Vienna

Hanna Hopko, Verkhovna Rada, Kyiv

Yaroslav Hrytsak, Cathololic University in Lviv

Sijbren de Jong, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, The Hague

Ben Judah, Author, Journalist, London

Paweł Kowal, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

Edward Lucas, CEPA, London

Sławomir Łukasiewicz, Lublin Catholic University

Myroslav Marynovych, Cathololic University in Lviv

Stefan Meister, Berlin

Shana Penn, Taube Foundation, Berkely

Jan Piekło, Kraków

Andrzej Poczobut, Hrodno, Belarus

Peter Pomeranzev, London

Martin Pollack, Vienna

Maria Przełomiec, Warsaw

Mykola Riabczuk, Ukrainian PEN Club – Kyiv

Anke Schmidt-Felzmann, Stockholm

Anton Shekhovstov, IWM, Vienna

James Sherr, Chatham House, London

Tomasz Stępniewski, Lublin Catholic University

Andrzej Szeptycki, Warsaw University

Cécile Vaissié, Rennes 2 University, Paris

Tomas Venclova, Yale University

Marcel H. Van Herpen, The Cicero Foundation, Paris

Andrew Wilson, University College London

Tatiana Zhurzhenko, IWM, Vienna

Thank you all for your signatures and support. The letter is now closed and being sent to the Deputy Prime Minister. In a matter of 48 hours we collected nearly 800 signatures from around the world! 

Click here to see the full list of signatures 

Continue to show your support by purchasing a subscription to the magazine: https://neweasterneurope.eu/subscribe-now